A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.K. Sikri and Amitav Roy dismissed a special leave petition filed by advocate R.P. Luthra who was aggrieved by the rejection of his petition by the Delhi high court.

Almost an hour after bench headed by Justice Chelameswar, upon a mentioning by Dave, said that it will hear the matter at 12.45 PM, the hearing by the constitution bench headed by the Chief Justice was adjourned for 10 minutes and later lawyers present in the court room were told that the constitution bench would resume hearing at 2 p.m.

The CJI's bench also recalled another order justices Goel and Lalit had issued with regard to setting up of courts of appeal to enable speedy disposal of criminal cases that linger in high courts for years.

The top court and the government have been at loggerheads over how to appoint judges.

The Supreme Court today referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench a plea alleging that bribes were taken in the name of judges.

This matter was taken up for hearing at 12.45 pm after it was mentioned in the morning at 10.30 am.

On October 27, the two-judge bench had said that there should be no further delay in finalization of MoP in larger public interest as more than one year and ten months have already gone by since the decision by the Constitution bench for finalisation of fresh guidelines by the Union government in consultation with the CJI. The Bench had also sought the Centre's response on the issue.

The Apex Court has agreed to hear a petition seeking probe into medical admission scam which allegedly involved a former Orissa High Court's Judge.

Mr Dave said the allegations about fixing of judges through illegal gratification is too serious a charge to permit the CBI and Centre to use it for arm twisting of the judiciary.

Dave said the five judges on the Constitution Bench that will hear the matter must not include the CJI since a bench headed by him had dealt with the matter relating to the Lucknow college in the past.

In its order, the judges also referred to a note received by the Bench from the Registry.

The bench of Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer directed the CBI Director to keep the entire record of its investigations into the matter and the case diary in a sealed cover and place it before the constitution bench that will hear the matter on Monday (November 13). It was transferred to another bench subsequently.